In the middle of summer after a heavy rain storm that never seemed would end, I stepped into my woods with Lydia and her babies. It was like stepping through the wardrobe. I don’t know how much time passed as I breathlessly captured each of their soulful spirits: their impish grins, baby hands of treasures, and the way they breathed in their mother and nestled into her body. I love every image we captured together that day and I collapsed into my bed in ecstasy with river water and grass stuck to my feet .

Mamas so often are not in the picture and we need to change that. We need not only to capture her likeness but the way she made you feel: the way your body felt next to hers, the way she grabbed your hand when you were scared, the sparkle in her eye, the strength that shoots from her like the strongest sapling. And it’s never too late for that.